Collection Progression: Part 2

I'm finally going to make a part 2. Yay! This will be a short one, because I only have 2 pictures (three games + one manual) to show.

First on the list, is something that arrived in my mail about a week ago.

Pinball WITH the original manual. The manual is in rough shape, but I didn't buy it for the manual, I bought it for the game. And, the game works perfectly. Believe it or not, this is actually a very addicting game. In fact, it's possibly one of the most addicting NES games I've ever played. My high score is 93,700.

Second on the list, is a bundle of two NES games, that arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Kung Fu, and Rad Racer. Rad Racer, is almost entirely famous for the movie "The Wizard", but we'll get into that another time. They both work great. They're a little dirty, but nothing a little alcohol wipes can't fix. I think that my favorite out of these two, has to be Rad Racer. It's so fun and addicting, and very challenging. And by challenging, I mean that I haven't beaten the first level yet.

Collection Progression: Part 1

So, today I will be started a series of posts, called Collection Progression. This series of posts, will be me talking about, and posting pictures of how my collection is coming along. So first, the pictures.

This is what I have plugged in. A Playstation 2, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and a Gamecube. All the controllers are lazily stashed to the side, and behind the gamecube.

The game shelf. Here is where I put all my PS2, NES, N64, Xbox, PC, DS, 3DS, and Gamecube games.

It is also a way for me to show it all off, in a neat way.

(Shelf Picture 1)

The 3 N64 games I own. 007 Golden-Eye, Banjo Kajooie, and Super Mario 64. 3 of the most popular games on the system.

There are 23 NES games in this picture (top shelf. Grey cartridges)

Can you count them all? 

(Shelf Picture 2)

(Shelf Picture 3)

Another picture of the things I have plugged in.

(Shelf Picture 4)

This is one of the first handhelds that Nintendo made. The Game and Watch. This is the Mario Bros. one.

And that concludes the first part. Not too much stuff to ake pictures of, but I am just starting out, so this is really good imo. 

Nintendo: How they brought video games back

In the beginning

Nintendo started making games in the 1980's. But, they were actually founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, and originally produced handmade "Hanafuda cards". By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and "love hotels". Abandoning previous ventures, Nintendo developed into a video game company, becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan's third most valuable listed company with a market value of over $85 billion US dollars. Nintendo of America is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team. Cool right? The name Nintendo can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven". As of June 30, 2013, Nintendo has solder over 655.9 million hardware units and 4.12 billion software units.


There first video game consoles

In 1977, Nintendo released there first console to Japan only. It was called "Color TV Game", and sold over 3 million units (picture below)

After the Color TV Game was 'shelved' (discontinued), Nintendo started development on there newest console. This console was released in Japan as the "Famicom" (short for Family Computer), on July 15, 1983. It was later released in North America, with the name "Nintendo Entertainment System", or "NES", on October 18, 1985. This system alone, is what brought video games back. A lot of people think that these were the very first video game consoles. Well, they're wrong. (Picture below shows NES on top, and Famicom on bottom)

Atari and the video game crash


A lot of people also say, that Atari is what started home video gaming. Well, was far as popularity goes, they're 60% correct. Atari rocked family's living rooms, worldwide back in the late 1970's. Every family household owned one. And boy, did they love it. Probably there most popular system, would be the Atari 2600. They had a lot of systems, but the numbered 5\ones, all fallowed the same name format. The Atari 2500, 2600, 2700, 5200 and 7800. But then.. Something terrible happened. The video game crash of 1983. The video game crash of 1983 (or '83), also known as Atari shock in Japan, was a massive recession of the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985. Revenues that had leaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent). The crash was a serious event that brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. The crash almost destroyed the then-fledgling industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video gaming consoles in the region, including the fastest-growing U.S. company in history at that point. Atari. It lasted about two years, and many business analysts of the time expressed doubts about long-term viability of video game consoles. The video-game industry was revitalized a few years later, mostly due to the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which was soft launched in New York City in late 1985 (I already said that.. Kinda) and had become extremely popluar in North America by 2987. Picture below, shows the Atari 2600.

Closing


Let's face it, I could talk for hours about the History of Nintendo, but it would only turn into the history of video games. Which, it already has. So, in closing, the history of video games, is a very long and interesting one. And it's continuing every day. So, remember, when you're turning on your Wii, Xbox, or Playstation, it's not about how much ram or gigs you have. It's about the adventure on the way. It's about the fun you had with it.

NES Black Box Games

So this morning I watched a random video, and about half way into the video, a guy said; "I own all the NES black box games". I knew about these games before, but after that video I went on Google, to find a list of them all. There are 30 in total, and they are the first games to be released on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). These games include some of the classics. Such as; Mario Bros. (Arcade), Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Balloon Fight, and much more. Today, I own 4 of the 30 games - Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Mach Rider and Pinball. The reason these games where called "black box games", was because they all came in a box, that was black on the bottom half, and had a pixelated picture of the game on the top half (picture below). These 30 games, were separated into 7 categories, or "series'". Sports, Light Gun, Action, Robot, Programmable, Arcade and Educational. Although, the educational series, only had 1 game; Donkey Kong Jr. Math, which speaks for itself, and is pretty self explanatory. These games can range in price, from $3.00 to $30.00. The last post I made, was about me buying Mach Rider at Pink Gorilla, which was (as previously stated) a black box game. These games aren't that hard to find, but they look great in a collection. In fact, you pretty much have to have some (if not all), to call your NES collection, an NES collection. Considering these are the first 30 games to be released on the NES (all made by Nintendo, by the way), you might think that they are bad games. But, that's not the case. I mean, just look at Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. These games, are what started Nintendo's biggest franchise, and one of the best ever. Actually, all of these games could be considered good in a way. The robot ones don't work that well, seeing as you need R.O.B the Robot to play them, but they are still considered good to some. I think that Donkey Kong Jr. Math, is the only one that can be considered, bad. So anyways. There really isn't much more for me too talk about. So, I guess I'll just wait to say more, until the next post. Which (SPOILER ALERT), will be about the history of the NES, and Nintendo, as a whole.

-Octopus Man


Oh, and here's that picture, of all the black box games

Pink Gorilla Games

So I recently heard of a little place in Seattle, called "Pink Gorilla". They have three locations in Seattle, and one in Bellevue Washington. Anyways, when my Dad and I went down to the U District in Seattle to go visit it, we had a hard time finding it. I wrote down the address and put it in our GPS, but it was still hard to find. Turns out, we passed it about three times. When we went in, it looked like a nice, small business. And that it is. First of all, the prices are fantastic. I bought Mach Rider (NES) for $3.99. All NES games are around $4-$10, and that's great! They sell almost everything you would want, if you're interested in starting a game collection. They even have a website, where all the prices on the site, match the ones in all the stores. So if you're curious about pricing, you can always go to www.pinkgorillagames.com. I fully intend to go to all their locations, and continue to go to them, whenever I feel it's necessary.

Welcome to The Retro Octopus!

Hello, and welcome to my newest blog thing! My name is Octopus (Octo) Man! Here I will be posting about my newest hobby; retro game collecting, and reviews on old and new games.. First post will be coming soon. And no, I am not going to call THIS post the first one. Because It's not technically a post about games and/or a review.

So again, welcome!